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Cranberry Yogurt Cake with Maple Glaze: A Simple Dessert for the Holiday Season

November 21, 2016 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

Cranberry Yogurt Cake with Maple Glaze: A Simple Dessert for the Holiday Season

In my foodie family there are many holiday dishes that are considered sacred: Eggs Benedict on Christmas morning, my mom’s buttery fresh spinach, my brother’s carefully timed and rotated stuffed turkey, my mom’s poached pears with chestnut puree, and my mashed potatoes. Most of these dishes are not only a little bit richer than I would usually make, but they are also very labor intensive, and that’s how we like it. We love spending hours in the kitchen together, usually with bouncing fun music playing, creating these rich and delicious meals.

Other than my mom’s poached pears, however, there are few dessert recipes that are considered essential (and even that one isn’t made every year). So when The Recipe Redux announced the challenge for this month: “The holiday baking season is upon us. Time to pull out all the stops. Show us the healthy holiday dessert you will be sharing with family and friends this season.” I was excited to see what I could come up with. I wanted to create a recipe that would not only have some redeemable nutritional aspects to it, but that would also be a simple one that anyone could do. My goal of simplicity was a bit selfish because I hoped that in making one that was easy, perhaps I could entice the boys to start making it with me and that over time it could become their special recipe to contribute to future holiday meals….

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Filed Under: Baked Goods, Dessert Tagged With: cake, cranberry, holidays, recipe redux, yogurt

Managing Treat Season for Ourselves and Our Kids

October 13, 2016 By Jessica Braider 1 Comment

Managing Treat Season for Ourselves and Our Kids

As much as we may want to live in denial, we are about to enter what I like to call treat season, that time of year from Halloween through New Years when there are seemingly endless supplies of sweet treats. This is a time of year that used to stress me out both because of my own treat consumption and because I felt like I was in a constant state of negotiation with my kids. In the past two years, though, I have not found it nearly as stressful and I wanted to share with you the things that I have done that I think have been helpful, both for myself and for my kids….

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Filed Under: Culture of Food, Dessert, Feeding Kids, Healthy Eating, Life Balance Tagged With: Halloween, healthy eating, holidays, kids, Thanksgiving, treats

Wilted Kale Salad: A Cure for the Winter Blues

December 17, 2015 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

Wilted Kale Salad: A Cure for the Winter Blues

Is anyone else overtired, stressed, or feeling sluggish? The other day as I was realizing that I was feeling really low energy and unmotivated. In theory, I was doing everything right—exercising, getting plenty of fruits and vegetables, sleeping (ok, maybe not sleeping enough, but getting some sleep)—but I was still dragging and then it came to me: greens. I wasn’t getting enough leafy greens.

Many (most) of us don’t get enough leafy greens, but they are so important. They are great for circulation and respiratory support, they boost our immune systems, and they provide a great energy boost. I hadn’t been eating them, though, because as the weather gets colder I am less drawn to smoothies and salads. So out came my sautéed and wilted green recipes to provide me some warmth, while still giving me all the benefits of the greens. And it worked! While I may not be stress-free and perky, I am definitely feeling much more alert and focused….

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Filed Under: Dinner, Quick Dinners, Sides Tagged With: dried cranberries, Easy, feta, greens, healthy, holidays, kale, vegetarian, walnuts

2015 Holiday Gift Guide: Great Cooking Gifts for Everyone on Your List

December 10, 2015 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

I don’t know about you, but I’m not even close to done with my holiday gift shopping. For some loved ones the gift purchases are clear, but for others it is tough to figure out the perfect gift. So this year I thought I would help all of you out by suggesting fun and helpful cooking gifts for some different categories of gift recipients: kids, new or reluctant cooks, and avid cooks.

I hope this list will help you in your gift buying this year!…

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Filed Under: Tips and Tricks, Uncategorized Tagged With: cooks, gifts, holidays, kids

7 Tips to Help You Actually Enjoy Thanksgiving

November 20, 2015 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

7 Tips to Help You Actually Enjoy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I love the coming together of family (whether actual or adopted), the sharing of foods, and the practice of expressing gratitude. Since marrying into a Brazilian family I have also loved seeing the different cultural interpretations that families bring to the table—tropical fruits in place of cranberry sauce, salad instead of green bean casserole (don’t miss that), and Brazilian desserts as well as pumpkin pie.

But for many of us Thanksgiving can also be overwhelming. It is a lot of work to produce so much food. There is a lot of pressure to have it be the perfect day. And that is where I think we need to shift our expectations. For me, the importance of Thanksgiving is in the coming together of people, it is in the sharing of plenty, and it is in the expression of gratitude for all that we have, which feels especially poignant to me this year as we are witnessing so much misery around the world.

As we prepare for Thanksgiving this year, this time of year to give thanks, I wanted to advocate for all of us to be kind to ourselves and to take the stress out of the day, so that we can truly focus on the important aspects of this holiday.

So here are my tips for ways to make Thanksgiving a little more relaxed and pleasurable, so that you can stay present and enjoy the day for what it is meant to be….

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Filed Under: Tips and Tricks Tagged With: family, holidays, self care, Thanksgiving

5 Recipes to Help You Stay Sane and Healthy During the Holiday Season

December 10, 2014 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

While this is a wonderful time of year for connecting with friends and loved ones, celebrating community, and giving gifts, it can also be a time of stress, rushing around, and sliding backwards when it comes to the foods we eat. For many of us, myself included, we can fall into the mindset of, “oh well, I haven’t been eating well anyway, so I might as well just eat that…” And while I am all for enjoying the special and comfort foods of the season, I also would like to avoid the colds, flus, and over-exhaustion that are making the rounds these days and one way to do that is to try to keep our meals simple and packed with wholesome ingredients. Here are a five my favorite recipes that help me to do just that.

butternut squash soupSlow Cooker Butternut Squash Soup

This one takes all of 10 minutes to prepare and is a family favorite. Pair it with crackers and cheese or grilled cheese sandwiches for dipping, and you’ve got a complete meal!

oatmealSlow Cooker Steel Cut Oats

This is a great one to keep breakfasts on track. Make a big batch, freeze the leftovers, and you are set for a whole bunch of mornings. Some of our favorite toppings are: chopped up apple, defrosted frozen blueberries, chopped nuts, dried fruit, and a little bit of maple syrup.

Fall Veggie StewSlow Cooker Fall Veggie Stew

This is a great, warming, comforting meal, and the leftovers freeze well, too!

IMG_1576Real Mac n Cheese

In the same amount of time that it takes to make the boxed stuff, you can make this!

waffle omelet 2Waffle Omelets

This meal can be made in 8-15 minutes (depending on how many you are making) and always makes my kids giggle.

Do you have favorite, quick, and easy dinners that you use at this time of year to keep your family eating well in the midst of all the craziness?

 

Filed Under: Cooking Basics, Dinner, Family Dinner, Freezer Cooking, Slow Cooker, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: butternut squash soup, fall vegetable stew, holidays, mac n cheese, steel cut oats, stress, waffle omelet

5 of My Favorite Cooking Gifts: Not too expensive gifts that can help make cooking more efficient and enjoyable

December 3, 2014 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

5 of My Favorite Cooking Gifts: Not too expensive gifts that can help make cooking more efficient and enjoyable

When I go to do kitchen and pantry evaluations with my clients, one of the things that they often complain about is that they don’t like to spend time in their kitchen. They find it stressful, cluttered, or too time consuming. What I tell my clients is that the secret to making cooking more enjoyable is to work with simple recipes in an efficient manner. That efficiency is largely dependent upon having the right tools on hand and having things organized in such a way that you can actually use the space you have. The following is a list of my top 5 not-too-expensive cooking tools, as well an extra out-of-the-box gift idea that may be just the thing for someone on your list……

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Filed Under: Cooking Basics, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: cheap, gifts, holidays, kitchen tools

Surviving Holiday Gatherings with a Picky Eater

November 18, 2014 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

The family is gathering around the table for Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone is set up for a beautiful meal full of tastes, abundant food offerings, and gratitude. But then there is your child who is scowling, or maybe even refusing to come to the table. You feel embarrassed, perhaps angry, you are worried that your in-laws or your own family will judge your child or even you. The tension mounts… This is not going to end well.

As we all know, family gatherings can be both wonderful and intensely stressful. As you prepare for the season’s festivities, it can be helpful, both for you and for your child, if you do a little bit of thinking about ways to preemptively manage the tensions at the table. Here are my suggestions:

1)   Put yourself in your child’s shoes. All of that food that is either unknown or unappealing to your child is likely to feel overwhelming and even scary. Your kiddo is very aware of the expectation that s/he should eat it all and that pressure probably feels pretty intense. Another way to approach this, think back to when you were a kid. I bet there was at least one dish that you thought was disgusting, but felt pressured to eat. How did that feel when you were little? Just by understanding a little bit about how your child perceives the situation, you may find you have a bit more compassion, patience, and flexibility in the moment.

2)   Get on the same page as your partner. Talk about your concerns ahead of time and make sure that the two of you can be a team in your approach, both in terms of how you communicate with your child and how you communicate with any family members who might contribute to tense dynamics. Come to terms with the fact that this is very likely not going to be the meal where your child suddenly eats everything.

3)   Talk with your child ahead of time. Discuss the fact that there may be unfamiliar or unappealing foods on the table, and that is ok. Talk about expectations of polite behavior—“No thank you” instead of “I don’t like that!” and staying at the table while everyone is eating together are probably good starting points. And come up with a game plan together for how to approach the meal. What foods is s/he willing to eat? How will you handle desserts (for ideas on this, check out this great piece by Caron Gremont of First Bites)? Is s/he willing to do one bite tries of one or two new foods?

4)   Talk with anyone else you think you should talk to. Let your in-laws, parents, siblings, whoever know that in the interest of having a pleasant meal, it would be really helpful if pressure to try new foods was not put on your child during the festivities.

5)   Remember to relax. The more tense you are, the more tense your child will be, which increases the likelihood of a meltdown.

Then, relax, and enjoy the time with family and friends, because, in the end, that is what this is really all about.

Filed Under: Feeding Kids, Picky Eaters, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: family, holidays, meals, parenting, stress

Easing the Holiday Stress

December 19, 2013 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

Easing the Holiday Stress

“Crazy busy week. But I think the fact that I’ve been humming ‘Feliz Navidad’ for the last hour means I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”

This was my husband’s status update on Facebook yesterday evening and it made me laugh and also gave me hope because I. am. tired. This week (actually the past month) has been a marathon of busyness. Between birthdays, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, travel, visits from out of town friends, school events, crunch time at my husband’s work, and, oh yeah, that keeping-a-brand-new-business-going thing life has been pretty rushed. But as I take a moment to breathe and acknowledge that my to-do list to end all to-do lists is increasingly a collection of crossed off tasks rather than things left to be done, I am grateful….

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Filed Under: Life Balance Tagged With: holidays, self care

Letting Go of Perfection

November 21, 2013 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

Letting Go of Perfection

This morning as I was thinking through what I was going to write about today, I kept coming back to the stress I am feeling about cooking the turkey for Thanksgiving this year. This has come as a surprise to me because, in general, roasting a turkey is something I feel pretty confident about.  I mean, this isn’t the first turkey I have ever made and every other one has been a success, but as I become more public in my persona as a health coach who is passionate about food, I feel increasing pressure for everything I cook to be: 1) perfectly delicious, 2) the healthiest option possible, and 3) simple whenever possible. That’s a lot of pressure, especially when we are talking about a turkey that will be serving 20 people!

…

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Filed Under: Culture of Food, Life Balance, Uncategorized Tagged With: holidays, turkey

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Jessica Braider

Hi! I'm Jessica. I love delicious food that is simple and easy. As a busy mom, I am always on the lookout for ways to make life easier and tastier! Read More…

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